The sixth Espoir en tête edition collected 58,000 €

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Published on Wednesday, 27 June 2018

The Rotary Clubs’ sixth Espoir en tête edition raised a large amount of money by organizing an exceptional preview at the Utopolis / Kinepolis cinemas. More than 3,500 spectators were present and once again the support goes to brain research in Luxembourg.

The new Disney movie

"A Wrinkle in Time", was on display Sunday, 25 March 2018. The public happily accepted the Rotary’s invitation and was present at the screening of this preview. As usual, 8 € from each place sold for 15 € are donated to research on brain diseases in Luxembourg.

In total, 3,500 people responded this year to the invitation of the Rotary Clubs Luxembourg and once again, the latter and many other donors have contributed to research on brain diseases in Luxembourg by presenting two checks with a total value of 58,000 €.

Two fundamental projects were selected:

The first prize of 30,000 € is awarded to the discovery of new neurotoxins in fecal water in the context of Parkinson's disease, which is a complex neurodegenerative disease. This collaboration between Dr. Jean-Pierre Trezzi (Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg, IBBL), Dr. Emma Schymanski (Luxembourg Center for Systems Biomedicine, LCSB) and Prof. Paul Wilmes (Luxembourg Center for Biomedicine Systems, LCSB) will analyze the human intestinal microbiome. The purpose of this study is the identification of unknown neurotoxins in fecal water that play an important role in the early stages of Parkinson's disease. The researchers employ an innovative and interdisciplinary approach that involves both biomedical and bioinformatic techniques to improve knowledge of Parkinson's disease.

The second prize of 28,000 € goes to Dr. Sabrina Fritah and Prof. Simone Niclou from the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH). This project focuses on the repair of "conductive" mutations and is part of gene therapy for cancer.

Moreover, the next edition of Espoir en tête is already announced for spring 2019.